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Adele Couteau
Adele Elise Couteau (born 24th August, 1976) is a clinic doctor and serial killer currently working in Brownsville, Texas. Commuting there from nearby South Padre Island, her opulent beachfront residence is shared with her fiancé, Ryan Alcroft. Able to count the Rogue Society, GEIST and even the Company among her previous - and temporary - employers, Adele's true loyalties are to a startlingly low number of people; the vast majority only serving as allies of circumstance whom she discards when their usefulness has ended. Appearance Even by the standards of women her age, Adele Couteau boasts a rather diminutive stature. Measuring only five feet tall, she is underestimated and overlooked by many; a misconception which she uses to maximum advantage at every conceivable opportunity. Her dark hair and eyes, coupled with her pale skin, are a telling testament to her French heritage. Like many such people in Louisiana, Adele's accent still harbours the distinctive European undertones inherited from her grandparents - who have lived in southern France their whole lives - while still sounding distinctly Louisianan. Family Background/History The sole child of Evelyn and Vincent Couteau, Adele lived a relatively stable childhood. With her mother working for regional news networks - later progressing to CNN - and her father holding a full-time job as a (now retired) haemotologist, experiencing time around the house with one of her parents absent was a frequent affair. Adele's prowess in academia was revealed to her parents when she was found trying to read a chapter of Gray's Anatomy unaided and, arguably, it was here from which her path to a medical career began. Although she spent some of her summers at her grandparents' villa in Saint-Tropez, it was only when she was set to attend university that she left her childhood home behind for good. Due to her almost perfectionist desire to exceed at any subject and obtain the best grades possible, Adele gradually found herself becoming alienated from her peers. Suffering from haemophilia, a school life away from physical pursuits such as sports was a course of action she saw as ideal and, in her eyes, it only served to increase her field of knowledge. Despite her condition, it quickly became apparent that, like almost every other member of her family, Adele possessed an ability. Unlike the genetic gifts of many people, however, the initial manifestation of Adele's power served to shield her from harm as opposed to exposing her to it. After an accident while learning to ride a bike, Adele sustained a cut on her leg from the gear chain; an injury which, in normal circumstances, would have been immediately followed by a hasty trip to the nearest emergency room. When Vincent rushed to his daughter's side - car keys in hand - he saw her sitting on the ground with her face set in concentration. By using nothing but willpower, she was able to staunch the normally rampant bleeding. As the years passed, the curiosity Adele felt towards her ability caused her to begin experimenting. Starting with household pets, she found that she was able to manipulate the internal processes of an organic body in a variety of ways. Even after completing her medical degree many years later, her experimentation hadn't ceased. If anything, the natural process of escalation had only served to make her tests increasingly morbid. Instead of the family dog, Adele had descended into a rather predatory state of being, utilising terminally ill patients as her test subjects. By focusing her efforts on manipulating parts of the human body that pertained to their respective illnesses - such as the kidneys for a man on dialysis - both her successes and failures remained undetected. When a person's symptoms were miraculously cured, they were quick to chalk it up to a divine miracle, just as their family were quick to chalk it up to the progression of their illness if she "failed". Personality In public, Adele carries herself with the air of a refined, well-spoken and intelligent woman living a high-maintenance lifestyle. Holding manners, respect and courtesy in high regard, she makes an effort to convey a polite demeanour to all she meets. However, as with many things in Adele's life, her outward personality is very much a façade; a shell which serves to make her seem like someone who adheres to the social norm. In reality, she holds true compassion for remarkably few people - a possible psychological remnant from her days in school - and has an almost obsessive need for her life to be precise. Being a doctor, her calculating, methodical and logic-driven mind is something which she easily explains away as an extention of her profession when, in actual fact, her linear mode of thinking is an integral part of the cerebral machinations which, at the end of the day, revolve entirely around her. A vengeful and sadistic woman, Adele doesn't hesitate to pursue those she deems to have wronged her - or anyone she cares about - in order to exact punishment for a person's crimes; one which is often vastly disproportionate to the "crime". One of the main driving forces behind her predatory nature is the deep-seated desire to intentionally cause pain in order to see the various coping mechanisms her victims employ in response and while, at one point, some would have considered this to stem from a Munchausen's-esque desire to take responsibility for saving those she brings to the brink of death, her lack of empathy for the vast majority of the world quickly disproves the theory. Ability Bodily Integrity Alteration Initially thought to be limited solely to the alteration of blood, Adele has since discovered that her ability allows her to command influence over just about every major system of a person's body, facilitating an almost limitless array of end results. These include, but are not limited to: *Clotting/Thinning blood. (causing embolisms, assisting with wound management, alleviating her own haemophilia) *Increasing/Decreasing digestion rate (Altering the rate at which the body expends energy) *Altering brain chemistry. (Increasing dopamine for a "natural high", etc.) *Altering skeletal density (Strengthening or weakening bones) *Controlling the central nervous system. (causing/halting seizures, inducing pain/euphoria) ''Biological Energy Reading Adele's ability to perceive the "biological energy" of a living organism has, in essence, turned her into the ultimate diagnostician. By simply focusing on a person, she is able to determine all manner of deficiencies and irregularities in their body, such as the location and severity of pain or the presence of undiagnosed conditions. A side-effect of this ability allows Adele to retain a "memory" of a person's unique biological signature and, by focusing on the characteristics of the memory, she is able to track them across substantial distances in much the same way a dog can be trained to detect earthquake victims or the presence of concealed narcotics. Trivia *Adele learned how to write in shorthand during her time at medical school. *Her surname - "Couteau" - translates to English as the word ''knife. *As well as a term meaning "mercy-killing", a misericorde is a type of medieval narrow-bladed knife. As its name suggests, it was made specifically to fit between the gaps of a knight's plate armour, allowing someone to deliver a merciful deathblow. *Although it remains subdued most of the time, Adele's accent is prone to slipping into a distinct southern drawl during times of extreme inebriety. Category:Villain